1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a moving object burglar alarm apparatus that, in the event of theft of a moving object equipped with the moving object burglar alarm apparatus, enables users to take theft-prevention measures by automatically notifying a notification center of the theft of the moving object.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, Japanese patent No. 2955702 entitled xe2x80x9cEmergency notification apparatus intended for vehiclesxe2x80x9d discloses an apparatus for detecting a theft of a moving object and notifying a notification center of the theft of the moving object. When a vehicle is started by using a mechanism other than a key used for starting the vehicle, the apparatus determines that the vehicle is stolen and transmits an emergency alert signal, position information about the current position of the vehicle acquired by reception of GPS signals and so on to the notification center so that the notification center can keep track of the vehicle.
A prior art apparatus that detects occurrence of a theft of the vehicle before the vehicle is started is proposed as a mechanism for detecting occurrence of a theft of the vehicle as early as possible. In this case, an area sensor or a shock sensor (i.e., an impact detection sensor) can be used as the mechanism for detecting a theft of the vehicle before the vehicle is started. The area sensor is a sensor that senses infrared rays emitted out of human bodies and detects a person""s approach to the vehicle. On the other hand, the shock sensor is a sensor that detects an impact on the vehicle. The shock sensor detects an impact on the vehicle when a wind glass is broken or a door is broken open.
A problem encountered with the prior art vehicle burglar alarm apparatus (moving object burglar alarm apparatus) constructed as mentioned above is that because the vehicle burglar alarm apparatus is so constructed as to detect occurrence of a theft of the vehicle as early as possible, the area sensor that uses infrared rays works even if a dog or cat approaches the vehicle or the shock sensor detects an impact on the vehicle at such a time as the time when raindrops hit a wind glass, so that in such cases the vehicle burglar alarm apparatus erroneously detects occurrence of a theft of the vehicle. Another problem is that because the vehicle may be used in a severe environment, the vehicle burglar alarm apparatus might malfunction because of failures that occur in the sensor or a peripheral circuit and this results in erroneous detection of occurrence of a theft of the vehicle. When the sensor erroneously detects occurrence of a theft of the vehicle or malfunctions, the prior art vehicle burglar alarm apparatus sends unnecessary notification about occurrence of a theft of the vehicle to the notification center, and this results in useless use of center facilities including a communication mechanism for enabling the prior art vehicle burglar alarm apparatus to communicate with the notification center and hence useless use of the ability of the notification center. A further problem is that it is a useless exposure of privacy to notify the notification center of the vehicle position when the sensor erroneously detects occurrence of a theft of the vehicle while the user normally uses the vehicle.
The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a moving object burglar alarm apparatus that, when a moving object is stolen, enables a party to the moving object to determine whether the moving object burglar alarm apparatus should make a notification about the theft of the moving object before sending the notification about the theft of the moving object to a notification center.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a moving object burglar alarm apparatus including an inquiry unit for, when a theft detection unit detects a theft of a moving object, inquiring whether the moving object burglar alarm apparatus should make a notification about the theft of the moving object of communication terminal equipment disposed outside the moving object burglar alarm apparatus, and a theft notification unit for determining whether the theft notification unit should notify the notification center of the theft of the moving object according to an answer to the inquiry from the communication terminal equipment, and for notifying the notification center of the theft of the moving object when the answer indicates that a notification about the theft is requested.
As a result, because the moving object burglar alarm apparatus enables a party to the vehicle to recognize occurrence of a theft of the vehicle from a notification about detection of the occurrence of the theft of the vehicle before notifying the notification center of the occurrence of the theft of the vehicle, and then notifies the notification center of the occurrence of the theft of the vehicle only when the party to the vehicle makes a request for the notification, the moving object burglar alarm apparatus can prevent notification about a theft of the vehicle from being made when the theft detection unit erroneously detects a theft of the vehicle or malfunctions and can also prevent an outflow of unnecessary position information about the position of the moving object. Furthermore, because the notification center does not receive any notification that the party to the moving object do not desire and needs not check the position of the moving object, useless use of facilities of the notification center can be prevented.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.